VAR Is Terrible. Yet It Can't Go Away.

There was once a time in our lifetimes when video replay was not a concept in professional sports. Since the introduction of instant replay and more camera angles in remarkable places never thought possible, the sports world has been mired in controversy. Instant replay has made watching sports torrid affairs, particularly because no matter how many camera angles and technology assists officials have these, they have been - in my honest opinion - getting the calls incorrect. Sure, that is par for the course; referees are humans just like you and me. They get calls wrong. It happens, but with all of this technology that is supposed to minimize officiating mistakes, why does it feel like there are more incorrect calls than ever before?

Association football was very late to adopt a video replay system. Critics cited how it slowed down the game and put the laws of the game under such a narrow scope, leading to misinterpretation. Before 2017, most leagues did not use video assistant referees or VAR. However, by the time the 2018 World Cup rolled around, VAR use was becoming common at the biggest football events, especially in club competitions. Since then, VAR has been regularly used in most top domestic leagues across the world, with some that don't have it due to financial reasons and league infrastructure. Yet, in 2023, VAR has become the ire of pretty much everyone in the footballing world. 

Well, maybe not everyone, but at least fans of English teams. 

There has been VAR controversy aplenty this Premier League season. It has trickled into the Champions League. It has coaches calling for matches to be replayed because of these injustices. It has people with tinfoil hats posting about the deep conspiracy to ruin one team's momentum. VAR was never perfect in the five to six years it has become a permanent addition to the PL reffing guidelines, but it seems like this year it has really exposed itself as utterly flawed and potentially useless. 

Almost every team in the top flight has had some kind of egregious VAR call go against them this season. It is not just a problem central to English football. There have been instances in Italy and Spain where teams have felt the injustice of VAR. There have been attempts to fix this. The 2022 Qatar World Cup featured real-time offside marking, which was hailed for its accuracy. The PL doesn't have that and hasn't said if it will adopt it. Handballs are constantly picked up by VAR, so much so the rules had to be changed to stop awarding easy penalties. Goals get called back for fouls in the build-up play. These solutions have not appeased everyone and they likely never will.

In the tribalistic nature that football fandom is, VAR has only made the "us vs. them" mentality worse. Social media has indeed made the discourse toxic, to the point where if one team feels hard done, another has to feel vindicated in some fashion. The most recent example is when Liverpool had two men sent off against Tottenham, and it looked like they might hold onto take a point away from the day, only for an own goal to give Spurs a win in stoppage time. Jurgen Klopp was incensed by the call to chalk off Luis Diaz's goal attempt around the 35th-minute mark for offside, which was concluded by the FA and PMGOL to be a result of human error and miscommunication by the officiating team. 

Chelsea were also hard done against Manchester City when Kyle Walker should've been called for a handball outside City's 18-yard line. No call was given, and Rodri scored the go-ahead goal for City just moments later. Chelsea were lucky to equalize to make it 4-4, but it goes to show that VAR is very tricky and at most, highly inconsistent with standards. 

It has rival fans inquiring about corruption among officials. PMGOL has demoted top officials to lower leagues for their controversial calls, saying they need to refind themselves, only to promote them back to the elite league. VAR, on the whole, seems to be causing more harm than good.

I have a bias against VAR. I still remember the 2019 Champions League final. It was not a handball, by the way. 

Anyway, the point is VAR is terrible. Yet, VAR is going nowhere. 

Though it has led to calamitous officiating and an inquest into whether these leagues need new referees, video replay is a permanent part of the sports landscape as a whole these days. It does serve a good purpose. For every call it gets wrong, it gets at least two to three correct. 

VAR has the capability of doing better. The video officials for international competitions have been known to get these calls done quickly and seemingly correctly. Why can't the PL do that? 

Perhaps there needs to be a new flush of referees in world football. More officials have come through the ranks and have been educated on the proper use of video replay. There might be generational gaps in understanding of this technology.